I first hit upon the idea to make s’mores cupcakes when the marshmallows I put in my last cupcakes melted into oblivion. It would take a little ingenuity, but it was doable, I thought: graham cracker cupcakes flecked with chocolate chips and topped by frothy marshmallow frosting. It would be marvelous.

When Cheryl of Cupcake Bakeshop and Garrett of Vanilla Garlic announced a creative cupcake event, my thoughts went immediately to my mythic dessert of my imagination. My first step was to find a recipe for vanilla cupcakes and doctor it into something grahamier. Chockylit’s recipes have always served me well, so I picked one from her website that served her well, the Vanilla Cupcakes from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. I crushed graham crackers, sifted the crumbs, and substituted them for most of the flour, hoping for the best.

And so I followed the traditional steps, whisking together dry ingredients . . .

. . . beating together butter, eggs, and sugar . . .

. . . combining the two into cupcake batter . . .

. . . adding in the chocolate chips . . .

. . . and baking it in cupcake liners.

The next step was the marshmallow frosting. I’ve made marshmallows before, but I was a little leery of using the same recipe for frosting. I did a little research and decided on Martha Stewart’s recipe for Snowball Frosting, which I found on 52 Cupcakes. The Cupcake Queen reported some frustrations with the process, but I was confident that I could learn from her mistakes. For example, she hit one snag when she realized she was supposed to beat the egg whites while simultaneously boiling the sugar, meaning that she had to run back and forth across her kitchen. I solved this problem easily, by virtue of my superior gadgetry.

While my Kitchenaid whipped my egg whites into stiff peaks without my supervision . . .

. . . my sugar boiled away under the watchful eye of my new candy thermometer, which helpfully beeped when it had reached the appropriate temperature. This was the first time I had occasion to use yet another wonderful gift that I got this Christmas, arguably the highest tech. It’s a hell of a lot better than maintaining a bowl of ice water next to the sugar and hovering over it like a mother hen.

When both components were at their respective peaks, I poured the sugar mixture into the egg whites while still beating them. The result was a light, fluffy substance that tasted distinctly of marshmallows.

I spooned it over the cupcakes and, since the frosting was still pretty gooey, let them dry until the surface of the frosting formed a film that was still tacky but much neater.

So how were they, my beautiful cupcake creations? Well, I got some very mixed reviews. My dad loved them, calling them even better than a normal s’mores. One boor at work called them weird and refused to elaborate, while another more tactful coworker said they were good but still disappointing. Yet another coworker praised them enthusiastically, saying that she could eat a whole batch. My mom liked them in general but said there was something off about them.

And me? Well, they were yummy, but not what I expected. The frosting was as marshmallowy as I expected, and chocolate is chocolate, but there was something — some things — wrong with the cupcake. First of all, about half of it stuck to the liner paper. I think I need to get my hands on some nonstick cupcake liners, or else find a good way to grease regular ones. Also, the chocolate chips sunk through the batter to the bottom, meaning that they stuck to the paper more than anything else. I’ve thought of a couple remedies for that: smaller, lighter chips, adding the chips after the cupcakes have started to cook, or even bypassing the chips entirely and inserting the chocolate as a filling instead. The final and most egregious problem was with the quality of the cupcake itself. It just didn’t taste like graham cracker. It actually reminded me more of a blondie, that bastard half-sibling of the brownie. I’d try leaving out the vanilla and reducing the sugar, since the graham crackers already have sugar in them.

So while not an unqualified success, the s’mores cupcakes are definitely worth a little effort. I’m confident that with a little tweaking, s’mores cupcakes will enter the cupcake hall of fame as one of the all-time cupcake greats.

S’Mores Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Graham Cracker Cupcakes
9 Nabisco graham crackers
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Marshmallow Frosting
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cup water
5 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place graham crackers in a heavy duty sandwich bag and crush with a rolling pin into fine crumbs. Sift crumbs to make 1 cup.

2. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup sugar and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds between each.

3. Whisk together graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Measure out milk and vanilla together.

4. Add about 1/4 of the crumb mixture to the butter mixture and beat to combine. Add about 1/3 of the milk mixture and beat to combine. Repeat, alternating flour and milk mixtures, ending with the flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and fill 2/3 way with cupcake batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Combine remaining sugar, corn syrup, and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil until mixture reaches 235°F on a candy thermometer.

7. Meanwhile, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Continue beating and gradually add sugar mixture. Add vanilla and beat until well combined.

8. Frost cooled cupcakes with marshmallow frosting and let dry until stiff.